Labour, Class and Economy: Rethinking the Trade Union Struggle

Strikes are the most ubiquitous form of class struggle in capitalism, with effects that extend beyond just obtaining concessions from employers. They play a crucial role in shaping workers’ class consciousness by exposing the inherent contradictions of capitalism and demonstrating the potential for solidarity among workers. The article examines how strikes influence workers’ consciousness, with a specific focus on the three wildcat strikes that took place in 2011 at Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the largest car manufacturer in India. In their struggle for an independent union, Maruti workers engaged in collective action, and in the process, transformed their consciousness in a non-linear manner.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the emergence of labor and its struggle for unionism in Turkey in parallel to the process of urbanization on the basis of a particular Turkish employee film named after The Blood Money (Diyet). What I am trying to argue is that labor has become a labor and unionism has converted into a professional and institutional background in the aftermath of the announcement of Republican period despite some ups and downs. In 1950s, the capital was urbanized which was the case for labor in the 1960s and hereafter.

Book Review| May 01 2004 To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City; Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City Martha Biondi Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003 360 pp.,$39.95 (cloth); Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism Ruth Needleman Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 2003 xi + 305 pp., $19.95 (paper) David Montgomery David Montgomery Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Labor (2004) 1 (2): 132–137. https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-1-2-132 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation David Montgomery; To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City; Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism. Labor 1 May 2004; 1 (2): 132–137. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-1-2-132 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsLabor Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2004 by Labor and Working-Class History Association2004 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

Contributing to our understanding of ideas as power resources in union struggle, this article analyses a labour dispute in Israel's shipping industry. The article follows the union's foregrounding of a specific idea of the state contained within the collective understanding of Israel's history, by which the union legitimised its position in the dispute and significantly influenced a government decision. The article therefore suggests that ideas can be an important power resource, particularly when other power resources are lacking but that this power resource is dependent on the specific ideational context: effective foregrounded ideas draw on a shared narrative that enables political actors to claim the moral high ground, while accusing their adversaries of failing to fulfil their moral obligations as understood via the frame of that shared narrative.

For decades following the 1910 to 1917 Mexican Revolution, rural maestros (teachers) in the Mexican state of Oaxaca were respected for their “vocation” and the hardships they suffered while working in poor, remote, rural communities where they played an instrumental role in forging a national culture. Since the early 1980s, politicization of Oaxaca's Local 22 of the national educators' union and work stoppages that close schools coupled with teachers' high salaries contribute to negative attitudes toward the profession. Using ethnographic data collected in Oaxaca among teachers and other members of the public, I discuss the support and opposition for federal teachers who practice what was long considered a “noble” profession, and union members' justifications of their labor actions.

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O presente artigo pretende analisar a formação, concepção e o acionar armado da Organización Popular Revolucionária – 33 Orientales (OPR-33), barço armado da Federación Anarquista Uruguaya, que atuou principalmente em solo uruguaio e posteriormente foi transferida para a Argentina. Neste artigo, analisaremos as ações armadas da organização em solo uruguaio e sua relação com as lutas sociais e sindicais uruguaias, no contexto do endurecimento do regime constitucional. Tendo como pano de fundo, a Revolução Cubana, a ação das direitas no Uruguai e a formação de uma gramática guerrilheira no país, o artigo pretende elucidar a prática da OPR-33 à partir de estudos de caso.

The union struggle has been, and still is, a key element to understand Mexico’s history. These organizations have taken a systematical fight since the year 1943, which has not met a truce, in order to improve the workers’ conditions. The present research is developed within this context with the objective to identify, from a feminist perspective, the sisterhood relationships that are woven by the militant women from the section XXII of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación en Oaxaca, as part of the labor union (CNTE). I turn to the feminist ethnography (Acevedo 2007; Blanco 2012) as a method for writing and transmitting the fighting stories to which I had access through my female partners, as well as my own since I have been part of the labor union. Also, I have participated directly with the teacher’s protest organized by CNTE in the Mexican capital in September, 2013. My methodology is sustained by the one proposed by Teresa del Valle (2017) to access the past from an autobiographic reflection. I build, in this way, a series of stories in which I compile my evocations as historical references to the popular teachers’ movement from the year 2006. Through them, I have identified, following Marcela Lagarde’s (2012) characterization, the ethic, political and practical levels in which the sisterhood relationships are produced as strategies of care, resistance and empowerment among the union activist teachers. The vertebrae of this analysis are composed by the key constructs such as “sorority” (Lagarde, 1997 & 2012), “ethics of care” (Comins, 2007, Lagarde, 2012) and “empowerment” (Azcuy and Palacio, 2008, Magdalena León, 2001). Finally, I suggest that the sisterhood relationships become a way of empowerment for the teacher of the CNTE, since these relationships find the possibility of obtaining power, signaling oppression, reporting abuses and signaling precedent of political participation for future generations.

New mechanical devices for newspaper production continued to be top news during 1948, although the Florida publisher using the famed “cold type” process issued a sober warning against over-optimism. The union struggle against the Taft-Hartley law which motivated the primary interest in printerless production continued as well. The ban of the magazine the Nation from New York City public school lists became the hot-weather cause célébre of early autumn. In the field of radio, television was at last recognized as a practical competitive factor in communications and advertising. —W. F. S.

In this chapter, the author reports on her involvement studying the official history of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, where she works. It explores two unexpected events in the course of her research. First, the discovery of a case of dismissal of an employee performed by the university during the military dictatorship—a case that was entirely erased from the university’s official history. Second, the relationship established between her and the employee dismissed, who was unwilling to narrate this episode but eager to make the interviewer his ally and successor in union struggles.

Distributed by Good DocsProduced by Jen Bradwell, Todd Boekelheide, and Rebekah FergussonDirected by Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide2024, Streaming, 89 mins Jen Bradwell & Todd Boekelheide’s Make a Circle follows the employees of three California preschools as they navigate pandemic closures in 2020 and the fight for unionization and better working conditions. The story is told through footage from these working preschools coupled with interviews with teachers both at home and at work as well as participating in community organizing events like marches. The documentary begins with footage of a baby playing, which grounds the focus of the documentary: This is the story of caring for the youngest and most vulnerable people in our society. Focus throughout the documentary never strays from footage of children playing in groups as well as interacting with teachers. The story’s pacing is not rushed. It lets the human moments breathe, which is apt in this story so rooted in humanity. Using a chronological structure and seamlessly moving between three featured preschools highlights common struggles, including low wages and lack of basic benefits. Another common theme that arises is the general misunderstanding of what happens in early childhood education, calling it “essentially babysitting” and “not real school.” One significant challenge faced by all early childcare centers in the United States was lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. On-screen facts and statistics support the experiences of the workers and help underscore the severity of the issue in the childcare industry. Additional on-screen facts ground the individual stories in the history of childcare in the United States back to World War II, so the audience understands that this problem has solutions that have worked in this country in the past and other countries today. One drawback of the film is that it does not cite the sources of these facts for the audience. While the documentary does not shy away from hardships of the preschool industry, the overall tone of the film is hopeful that change is possible and on the horizon. A significant portion of the film is dedicated to the fight for childcare workers to form a union—the culmination of a 20-year struggle. The union includes workers from institutions that take state subsidies. Only 2 featured preschools take state subsidies, so not all featured preschool teachers are eligible for these contract protections from the state. Even though the union struggle and contract negotiations are a focus of the story, it is the individual teacher stories that stand out. One teacher struggles with his decision to leave early childhood education for work as a 3rd and 4th grade teacher for better pay and benefits, feeling as if he is “letting [his fellow teachers] down” and abandoning his preschool students. Another teacher returns to work directly after a medical incident because of the lack of health care support in the industry. What’s most evident about the featured childcare workers in the documentary is how much they love their work despite its challenges. Patricia in San Jose says, “I’m working 16 hours a day and Saturdays. It’s exhausting. But I love it. I love this torture. I love it. I love it.” Anne in Berkeley calls their work “a sacred responsibility.” Their frustration is not with the parents or students but with a society that has created this “broken system.” They know the importance of childcare in a functioning society that supports economics and innovation. Their fight is for proper compensation for this vital service to society. The most obvious weakness of the film is its focus on one state and the benefits of improving the childcare industry through unionization. The mechanism of unionization will not apply to the thousands of preschool employees in right-to-work states. Even in union-friendly states like California, most preschool teachers do not belong to unions and are mostly isolated from others in the field. In addition, the documentary does not provide exploration of a counterargument. Material associated with the documentary calls the film “A Love Letter to Early Educators and a Rallying Cry for a Child Care System in Crisis,” indicating the bias of the storytelling. The storytellers do not explore the reasoning behind the current structure of the childcare system. The film concludes with a call to action, directing the audience to the website where advocacy and organizing tools are provided. The audience is left to speculate reasons for the current organization of the industry without exploration of this counterargument. This film can be useful for professors and students in early childhood education or public administration programs. It is most useful as a tool to spark discussion about the importance of childcare in a functioning society and the methods for improving teaching and learning conditions. Awards:Audience Choice, Doclands Film Festival; Best Editing, United Nations Association Film Festival

When I think back on my undergraduate courses, I cannot recall one instance when a professor or instructor uttered the words "class conflict," "labor movement," or "union struggle." Growing up in a working-class neighborhood as a daughter of a union electrician, I took it for granted that history in general and United States history in particular were not about me, my family or my neighbors, but instead about people with power who controlled and shaped the important events that occurred in our nation's past. What a surprise, upon entering graduate school, to find that U.S. labor and working-class history was an actual course being offered. It seemed as though I had entered some parallel universe where one's reality is turned upside down. In this case, working-class people, ideology, politics, and movements were at the center of the historical narrative. Students discussed how differently American history looked when examined from the perspective of working people. From the first day of class, I was hooked.

This article aims to provide an understanding of the perceptions of agrarian issues, highlighting the agrarian pact, in a critical perspective, and seeks to establish that the agrarian question remains unresolved, and no comprehensive solution has been found to date - most people living in rural areas settings experience various forms of disadvantages such as the dissociation from the social patterns of accumulation, and they are deprived of their own rights; moreover, the paper highlights the epistemological significance of the empirical and academic reflections, and the social and union movements with respect to the proposals for the formulations of public policies. Keywords: Agrarian Question; Agrarian Pact; Landowners; Social and Union Struggle; Land Reform; Agrarian Public Policy.

Este artigo traz reflexões oriundas de pesquisa de mestrado em andamento e apresenta reflexões interseccionais sobre a conquista de espaço das representações sindicais femininas. Visa analisar as lutas feministas no movimento sindical nacional, tendo como guia a educação como fator central na agenda sindical. Baseia-se em pesquisa qualitativa explicativa, organizada pelo procedimento de revisão bibliográfica. Evidencia que múltiplas opressões, interseccionadas, constituem desafios para a representação feminina na luta sindical, podendo, entretanto, ser enfrentadas através da educação.

New Tendencies in Union Struggles and Strategies in Europe and the United States, 1916–1922